On Tuesday evening I had the privilege of attending the inaugural Girl Geek Dinner (Ottawa Chapter) with social media maven Tara Hunt at the Black Tomato in downtown Ottawa. The place was packed with women all buzzing to meet new people and talk about the latest and greatest in technology, and to a fellow geek like me that aspect alone was enough to keep me there into the wee hours of the night. But to make it an even more exciting night, for a social media junkie like myself, getting to hear Ms Hunt speak (about anything, really) was the cherry on top.

Tara Hunt has been making waves in the social media world for quite some time and one of her latest endeavors, a book titled The Whuffie Factor: Using the Power of Social Media Networks to Power Your Business has brought across useful, applicable information in a simple and practical way. On Tuesday evening she spoke candidly about her journey to and through entrepreneurship including how she struggled, being a single mother, as well as how she prevailed. Girl Geek Dinner was such an awesome event to go to since it was a small setting I was lucky enough to speak to Ms Hunt personally  (and get her to sign my Whuffie Factor book!!). The amazing part about meeting her was to see how ‘real’ she actually is. Yes, she has an awesome book, has started a lot of cool companies and has thousands of followers on Twitter but at the end of the day talking to her was like talking to one of my girlfriends. She has her struggles and success stories just like anyone else but she’s not afraid to let others know where she came from and how she got there because she genuinely wants to help people and make them realize the potential they have to make a difference.

All in all attending GGD Ottawa was one of the best things I did this week, and yes it was a bit scary to meet and introduce myself to complete strangers but in the end I am so glad I did. I met some of the coolest people (@saucy_15 @edwardog @bethmaru @juliehache @Chocolat_noir @sequindawn @serenangai) and had some amazing conversations and good laughs. I can’t wait for the next event, and I hope we can get more fellow geeky girls to come out too!